Punished creativity
The news appeared earlier this year in the media that the Social Security asked several older Spanish writers to return their pension, as they continued to collect some money from the sale of books, so they were not entitled to retirement. They started to ask, and they all agreed that that was crazy, because retirement money is just paying for what's quoted all their working lives, and because creativity, an activity that benefits society as a whole, needs another treatment. The news seemed curious, as if it were a remote ridicule of thoughtless Spaniards. But in Hego Euskal Herria pensions are the responsibility of Spain (which they do not want to transfer under any circumstances) and therefore we are at their mercy, all the workers of Hegoalde. Also, those of us who work in different types of creativity.
We do not yet know what the matter is going to end. But those who are researched and harmed are not just writers. Recently I met a bertsolari, he told me that the Social Security is vigilant, if they appeared in the squares, it ran the risk of taking their pension off.
At the same time it happened (although it did not spread in the media), several Basque writers received letters, sent by an inspector of the Social Security of Pamplona, asking for all kinds of papers: all invoices of the last five years, income declarations, contributions from the self-employed, VAT declarations and others. He took all these papers and asked them to appear in his office in Pamplona at that time, under the threat of I do not know what sanctions.
Those writers shake and they don't understand anything. What happens? Why do you ask me? They later learned that they were reviewing all the funds of the Official School of Languages of Pamplona, and as they had spoken at a conference, the inspector asked them that, although almost all of them were paid workers, in addition to the quote at their workplace, they had to leave and pay in their self-employed workers, as they had a desk income. He didn't care if these incomes were lower than the self-employed, because that wasn't his problem.
We do not yet know what the matter is going to end. But those who are researched and harmed are not just writers. I recently met a bertsolari. A few years yes, but it is still in shape and clear. He told me that he had not seen him chanting long ago and that the Social Security had guarded him, if he appeared in the squares, with the risk of taking his pension.
All Bertsolaris over the age of one are forced to silence; writers cannot make speeches, for fear of great fines; in other sectors we do not know what… Here is the contribution of the Spanish Social Security to the Basque culture, which is on the verge of bankruptcy.
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